Open Labs Science Café with Pathways, Nov. 8th, 2015

Robin Canavan, graduate student in Geology & Geophysics, will help you Life on a Different Planet - The Secret Past of Our Own Earth. You might not even recognize our planet when it looked more like the ice planet Hoth in the Star Wars Universe. Learn how scientists can unravel past climate information and how Earth might be headed back to resembling the tropical greenhouse world of the age of the dinosaurs.

Darryl Seligman, graduate student in Astronomy, will talk about Stellar Astrophysics. The Sun is the only astrophysical object that directly impacts us, and its behavior profoundly influences our life on Earth. Space weather and geomagnetic storms from solar eruptions such as flares and coronal mass ejections present high risk to power stations, GPS systems and satellites. Therefore, understanding mechanisms driving these eruptions and predicting space weather is one of the most compelling and societally relevant astrophysical goals. There are many theories about how energy is transported from deep within the sun to the exterior. My talk is on research I have done on the relationship between the plasma and the magnetic fields in active regions.

Sharif Kronemer, graduate student in Biology & Biomedical Science, will talk about Consciousness - What is it and How do we define it?